Sportable to offer two training teams for athletes with physical disabilities and visual impairments for 2016 Ukrops Monument Avenue 10K

January 06, 2016

Contact: Marielle Rando, Director of PR, SPORTABLE
401-793-1344

January 6th, 2016 (Richmond, VA) In 2016 Sportable Richmond Adaptive Sports and Recreation will be hosting two 10K training teams coached by Karl Cover. The first team will be training on Tuesday nights right alongside an advanced 10K training team at SportsBackers Stadium. This team will consist of athletes with visual impairments. The team ranges from people who are gaining independence by walking in the 10K to those elite blind runners who are looking to eventually qualify for the Boston Marathon.

Jimmie Morris of Farmville, VA will be training with the team. Morris has been battling Retinitis Pigmentosa for over 10 years and this October began his training at the Virginia Rehabilitation Center for the Blind. Before he lost his vision, Morris was an avid cyclist in Farmville. He is eager to get back to competing and is very excited to begin the training program. “This will help me prove that I can do anything I put my mind to. I think it will also help me feel a little bit of the sense of freedom I lost after I was no longer able to drive,” says Morris.

Our second training team will take place at Bryan Park on Saturday Mornings. This team will consist of athletes who use a racing chair as well as those with visual impairments. An athlete to watch on this team is a former Collegiate and U of R Football and Basketball Standout, Richard Bagby. Bagby graduated from Collegiate in 2002 and went on to play basketball at Boston University and eventually transferred to U of R to play football. Bagby has been a Quadriplegic since age 25 when he suffered from a spinal cord injury as the result of a diving accident. Now, at age 32 Bagby serves as the Deputy Director of the United Spinal Association of Virginia and will be competing in his first athletic competition since his injury.